Over the River &

Product Notes

READ THE NEW REVIEWS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE !!! psssst....cumeer...wanna real deal?,if you buy 'Over The River And...' now, your fourteen bucks will get you a VERY limited (only 500 copies) run of 1)a bonus enhanced CD of the original demos with hidden tracks, 2) the original pop-up and fold out packaging those demos came in and 3) a poster of the characters in the songs! Now, what do we sound like? STUART PEARSON- guitars, keyboards, mandolin, ukelyn, squeezebox, hurdygurdy, silverware, Portuguese guitarra, earlaphone, earlalaika, zoobtube, assorted bells, banjo, mbira, billions of backing vocals BOB GANNON- cocktail & sitdown drums, spoons, bicycle wheels, hubcaps, dinging things, omnichord viking vocals STEVE ANDREONI- upright and electric bass, tuba, trumpet and viking vocals DAVID QUILLEN- saxes, clarinet, glockenspiel, fluto-phones, percussion, backing and viking vocals. Through the Woods combines musical styles from many different periods of popular music to present a sound that is mercilessly produced. TTW play over 20 instruments live and more on their recordings, incorporating ghosts of the 30's, 40's,50's, 60's, 70's. Well, you get the idea. Lyrically, Stuart Pearson pays tribute to carnival folk, serial killers, loners, goofs and superheroes; there's always a feeling a 'huh?' in the air. The final result is a dizzying mixture of confusion, dismay, excedrin and love. ___ The Ballad Of THROUGH THE WOODS - EARLY YEARS From the smallest beginnings, in a trailer park just southeast of Lawrence, Kansas, Stuart Pearson met Bob Gannon at the ages of fifteen and twelve, respectively. They were too poor to afford actual instruments, so they would make their own, from car parts, cigar boxes and anything they could find at a nearby junkyard. Stuart started writing songs. Hundreds of songs, which they would pound away at hopelessly. They found and repaired tape recorders, omnichords and a confounding array of horrible guitars. Years of annoying the townsfolk resulted in their first record, 'When Omnichords Roamed The Earth'. Rarely heard and never appreciated, it disappeared. Bob and Stuart felt a trip to Los Angeles might change their luck, so they found and repaired a VW Microbus and traveled west. Mapless, they drove south into Texas, where they picked up a hitchhiker named Kip Millwee. Kip played guitar, and like Stuart, was once attacked by aliens. Convincing them they were in California, they drove in huge circles, covering the state while Kip transformed the songs into a listenable form. The band's names ranged from 'This' to 'A Face In The Crowd', to, finally, 'Over The River And Through The Woods To Grandmother's House We Go.' Kip finally steered them to a studio, called 'The Bedroom', where dozens of songs were recorded. Bob noticed scenery repeating and bought a map. That map lead them to Hollywood, which opened it's tendrils in an embrace of pure misery. L.A. is for lovers! MIDDLE YEARS Bob suffered from a recurring nightmare of being in a confused carnival musical. He faced his fears and staged, 'The Ghost Carousel', with a local zoologist, Steve Wolf. Looking for extra players, he heard of a marching band, whose clarinetist would only come out of the basement to the sound of Jackie Gleason records. David Quillen would not only join the musical, but also Through The Woods. In a panic, Stuart took to drinking, fortunately, the drinks he took belonged to Rob Morse, local foreigner from Virginia. Rob taught Bob about beer, and beer taught Bob about Morse. When Morse put down his drink and picked up his bass, everyone got itchy. The band suffered a communal rash for about a year, during which they recorded their first release. Kip had two reasons to leave Los Angeles; one, he was tired of having guns pushed into the back of his head at Kinko's, and two, well, it's LA. Do you need a reason? Kip moved to San Francisco and bred with his wife. Kip left a hole that they filled with a tootsie roll named Jason Peri. Jason was the counselor at a sensitivity camp in Riverside. Stuart met him at a psychic fair that he was working at down the road. (Side note- Stuart was facing a brilliant career as a phone psychic until music lured him astray.) Jason burned quickly under the bite of the dreaded wombat. 'Nuff said. Both Rob Morse and Jason Peri were murdered on stage during one of the band's many polka nights. The event was re-enacted on radio for the thousands mourning their sad passage. LATER YEARS Now that they were becoming respected, they were allowed to appear at award ceremonies, and won the National Academy of Songwriters' 'Band of the Year' for 1995. They did this with the help of weatherman Steve Andreoni. Steve tired of the easy women, big money and travel associated with weather reporting, and was looking to settle down in a nice rock band. After heated discussions during a three day canasta binge, Steve relented, though over his shoulder was the seductive alure of local weather forecasting, which, much like the whore of Babylon, would once again claim it's john (or, Steve). Their first sojourn was into a tribute record for The Residents. Deemed 'too weird' for The Residents, their version of 'Song To Missy' was never released. Israeli freedom fighter Deror Margalith joined on keyboards and the band recorded the original demos for 'Wax Paper' and 'The Red Motel'. Called back to action in Hebron, he bid us a sad farewell. NOW After a period of self reflection and dreams of becoming a cover band, TTW shouldered forward and decided to hide from each other. Stuart, hoping to build a legend for the music to succeed on, started rumors that he had died. Nobody believed him, so he became the recluse everyone knew he would become. During this period, he decided to take the recordings of TTW and throw as much overdubbing and rerecording on top of them that was possible. Phil Spector was heard to scream 'NO MAS!', which lead Stuart to believe he was halfway there. The resulting record, 'Over The River And...' features 16 songs and lordy-knows how many vocal tracks ('Waterline' alone has a chorus of over 80 voices, as well as 4 hurdy gurdys, screaching feedback Vox guitars and multiple earlalaikas- an instrument Stuart created that sounds like a toy sitar). Bravely facing the future, Through the Woods is prepared to play anywhere, anytime and once again become 'The Soundman's Nightmare'. TURN DOWN ELROY!!!

READ THE NEW REVIEWS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE !!! psssst....cumeer...wanna real deal?,if you buy 'Over The River And...' now, your fourteen bucks will get you a VERY limited (only 500 copies) run of 1)a bonus enhanced CD of the original demos with hidden tracks, 2) the original pop-up and fold out packaging those demos came in and 3) a poster of the characters in the songs! Now, what do we sound like? STUART PEARSON- guitars, keyboards, mandolin, ukelyn, squeezebox, hurdygurdy, silverware, Portuguese guitarra, earlaphone, earlalaika, zoobtube, assorted bells, banjo, mbira, billions of backing vocals BOB GANNON- cocktail & sitdown drums, spoons, bicycle wheels, hubcaps, dinging things, omnichord viking vocals STEVE ANDREONI- upright and electric bass, tuba, trumpet and viking vocals DAVID QUILLEN- saxes, clarinet, glockenspiel, fluto-phones, percussion, backing and viking vocals. Through the Woods combines musical styles from many different periods of popular music to present a sound that is mercilessly produced. TTW play over 20 instruments live and more on their recordings, incorporating ghosts of the 30's, 40's,50's, 60's, 70's. Well, you get the idea. Lyrically, Stuart Pearson pays tribute to carnival folk, serial killers, loners, goofs and superheroes; there's always a feeling a 'huh?' in the air. The final result is a dizzying mixture of confusion, dismay, excedrin and love. ___ The Ballad Of THROUGH THE WOODS - EARLY YEARS From the smallest beginnings, in a trailer park just southeast of Lawrence, Kansas, Stuart Pearson met Bob Gannon at the ages of fifteen and twelve, respectively. They were too poor to afford actual instruments, so they would make their own, from car parts, cigar boxes and anything they could find at a nearby junkyard. Stuart started writing songs. Hundreds of songs, which they would pound away at hopelessly. They found and repaired tape recorders, omnichords and a confounding array of horrible guitars. Years of annoying the townsfolk resulted in their first record, 'When Omnichords Roamed The Earth'. Rarely heard and never appreciated, it disappeared. Bob and Stuart felt a trip to Los Angeles might change their luck, so they found and repaired a VW Microbus and traveled west. Mapless, they drove south into Texas, where they picked up a hitchhiker named Kip Millwee. Kip played guitar, and like Stuart, was once attacked by aliens. Convincing them they were in California, they drove in huge circles, covering the state while Kip transformed the songs into a listenable form. The band's names ranged from 'This' to 'A Face In The Crowd', to, finally, 'Over The River And Through The Woods To Grandmother's House We Go.' Kip finally steered them to a studio, called 'The Bedroom', where dozens of songs were recorded. Bob noticed scenery repeating and bought a map. That map lead them to Hollywood, which opened it's tendrils in an embrace of pure misery. L.A. is for lovers! MIDDLE YEARS Bob suffered from a recurring nightmare of being in a confused carnival musical. He faced his fears and staged, 'The Ghost Carousel', with a local zoologist, Steve Wolf. Looking for extra players, he heard of a marching band, whose clarinetist would only come out of the basement to the sound of Jackie Gleason records. David Quillen would not only join the musical, but also Through The Woods. In a panic, Stuart took to drinking, fortunately, the drinks he took belonged to Rob Morse, local foreigner from Virginia. Rob taught Bob about beer, and beer taught Bob about Morse. When Morse put down his drink and picked up his bass, everyone got itchy. The band suffered a communal rash for about a year, during which they recorded their first release. Kip had two reasons to leave Los Angeles; one, he was tired of having guns pushed into the back of his head at Kinko's, and two, well, it's LA. Do you need a reason? Kip moved to San Francisco and bred with his wife. Kip left a hole that they filled with a tootsie roll named Jason Peri. Jason was the counselor at a sensitivity camp in Riverside. Stuart met him at a psychic fair that he was working at down the road. (Side note- Stuart was facing a brilliant career as a phone psychic until music lured him astray.) Jason burned quickly under the bite of the dreaded wombat. 'Nuff said. Both Rob Morse and Jason Peri were murdered on stage during one of the band's many polka nights. The event was re-enacted on radio for the thousands mourning their sad passage. LATER YEARS Now that they were becoming respected, they were allowed to appear at award ceremonies, and won the National Academy of Songwriters' 'Band of the Year' for 1995. They did this with the help of weatherman Steve Andreoni. Steve tired of the easy women, big money and travel associated with weather reporting, and was looking to settle down in a nice rock band. After heated discussions during a three day canasta binge, Steve relented, though over his shoulder was the seductive alure of local weather forecasting, which, much like the whore of Babylon, would once again claim it's john (or, Steve). Their first sojourn was into a tribute record for The Residents. Deemed 'too weird' for The Residents, their version of 'Song To Missy' was never released. Israeli freedom fighter Deror Margalith joined on keyboards and the band recorded the original demos for 'Wax Paper' and 'The Red Motel'. Called back to action in Hebron, he bid us a sad farewell. NOW After a period of self reflection and dreams of becoming a cover band, TTW shouldered forward and decided to hide from each other. Stuart, hoping to build a legend for the music to succeed on, started rumors that he had died. Nobody believed him, so he became the recluse everyone knew he would become. During this period, he decided to take the recordings of TTW and throw as much overdubbing and rerecording on top of them that was possible. Phil Spector was heard to scream 'NO MAS!', which lead Stuart to believe he was halfway there. The resulting record, 'Over The River And...' features 16 songs and lordy-knows how many vocal tracks ('Waterline' alone has a chorus of over 80 voices, as well as 4 hurdy gurdys, screaching feedback Vox guitars and multiple earlalaikas- an instrument Stuart created that sounds like a toy sitar). Bravely facing the future, Through the Woods is prepared to play anywhere, anytime and once again become 'The Soundman's Nightmare'. TURN DOWN ELROY!!!